The two University of Richmond basketball coaches killed in a hot-air balloon crash were a beloved long-time assistant who was part of one of the most revered moments in the program's history, and a woman who was hardly out of college and always cheerful and willing to help.

The pilot, Daniel T. Kirk, was also killed when the balloon drifted into a power line and burst into flames Friday. He had 20 years of flying experience and was affectionately known as "Capt. Kirk."

At the university's graduation Sunday, a moment of silence was held for the coaches — director of basketball operations Natalie Lewis and associate head coach Ginny Doyle.

As a senior for the Spiders, Doyle set an NCAA record — for men or women — by making 66 consecutive free throws, an accomplishment that earned her dubious recognition from CBS college basketball analyst Billy Packer.

Packer, an 81.9 percent free-throw shooter at Wake Forest, scoffed at the record on air and noted that women use a slightly smaller ball, which in his mind made it less impressive.

Hearing that Packer was going to be in Richmond on another matter, the school invited him to come shoot against Doyle, and about 1,200 fans watched the duel at the Robins Center on Feb. 2, 1992.

It was no contest: Doyle, using a men's ball, made 20 of 20, with only two of them touching the rim. Packer, to the delight of the crowd, missed eight of his 20 attempts.

Her record has since been broken, but years later her foul shooting, as well as her love of the game and her players, remained on display, according to Robert Fish, a Richmond alum who also has called women's games on radio.

Doyle, 44, was hired by Bob Foley at Richmond in 1999 and stayed on through a couple of coaching changes.

Lewis was a four-year letter-winner in swimming who just completed her second season with the basketball program. Her job required organization skills as she made travel, hotel and bus arrangements for the team, planned for meals and handled day-to-day basketball business.

In the grind of a season, broadcaster Matt Smith said, she was a shining light, too.

"Sometimes when you work in sports, coaches can be so high strung and so focused on the next game or what's going on that you feel almost uncomfortable when you go into the office, but her being the first one that you would see, she always had a smile on her face," Smith said.

The University of Richmond on Monday released statements from the women's families expressing thanks for the support they've received.

"Natalie loved people. She was our constant source of happiness and joy," Lewis' family said in the statement. "She used genuine words and selfless actions to gently help others be more successful and more fulfilled."

Doyle's family recalled Ginny as a "daughter, sister, aunt, cousin, niece, athlete, teammate, coach, teacher, colleague, friend and storyteller" who "touched the lives of many and lived life to the fullest."

Kirk, of Delaware, was known by fellow pilots as "Capt. Kirk," the hammy commander of the USS Enterprise on the TV series "Star Trek."

Steve Hoffmann, who said he taught Kirk to fly and built the balloon he was piloting, called him "one of the nicest guys in the world" and a consummate professional.

"He was not a hot dog, not a risk taker," Hoffmann said. "It's so unbelievable that everyone's in shock."

The balloon was among 13 that lifted off Friday on a preview night for the Mid-Atlantic Balloon Festival when it drifted into a power line, burst into flames and fell into a heavily wooded area about 25 miles north of Richmond.

On the ground, "it was complete silence," spectator Nancy Johnson said. "There were people praying. It was horrible."

State police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said another pilot interviewed by investigators described how the pilot tried to open vents to release extra-hot air in an attempt to keep the balloon from rising faster.

"Based on witness accounts, he did everything he could to try to save the passengers' lives," Geller said.

Rashad McCants, the second-leading scorer on the North Carolina basketball team that won the 2004-05 national title, told ESPN's "Outside the Lines" that tutors wrote his term papers, he rarely went to class for about half his time at UNC, and he remained able to play largely because he took bogus classes designed to keep athletes academically eligible.

McCants told "Outside the Lines" that he could have been academically ineligible to play during the championship season had he not been provided the assistance. Further, he said head basketball coach Roy Williams knew about the "paper-class" system at UNC. The so-called paper classes didn't require students to go to class; rather, students were required to submit only one term paper to receive a grade.

McCants also told "Outside the Lines" that he even made the Dean's List in Spring 2005 despite not attending any of his four classes for which he received straight-A grades. He said advisers and tutors who worked with the basketball program steered him to take the paper classes within the African-American Studies program.

McCants' allegations mirror and amplify many of those first made public in 2011, when the Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer began to report about widespread academic fraud at UNC. The scandal has centered on the African-American Studies classes that many athletes took in order to remain eligible. The newspaper reported in December 2012 that basketball players on the national championship team accounted for 15 enrollments in the classes. A UNC internal investigation found that 54 classes in the department of African and Afro-American Studies were either "aberrant" or "irregularly" taught from summer 2007 to summer 2011. That investigation only went back to 2007, according to the school's review, because the two senior associate deans who conducted the probe were told by Karen Gil, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, to focus on that time frame.

The NCAA sanctioned the football program for improper benefits and academic misconduct involving a tutor, but the athletic department's sports programs largely emerged from the academic scandal penalty-free.

In a statement to "Outside the Lines" on Thursday, UNC athletics director Bubba Cunningham said: "It is disappointing any time a student is dissatisfied with his or her experience. I welcome the opportunity to speak with Rashad McCants about returning to UNC to continue his academic career -- just as we have welcomed many former student-athletes interested in completing their degrees.

"The university hired former federal prosecutor Kenneth Wainstein in January to conduct an independent investigation into past academic and athletic irregularities. While these are the first allegations we have heard from Mr. McCants, I encourage him to speak with Mr. Wainstein. ...

"I have gotten to know some of Mr. McCants' teammates, and I know that claims about their academic experience have affected them deeply. They are adamant that they had a different experience at UNC-Chapel Hill than has been portrayed by Mr. McCants and others."

North Carolina's Rashad McCants and teammates hoist the trophy after UNC beat Illinois 75-70 in the NCAA championship game in 2005.
Williams also issued a statement, saying: "With respect to the comments made today, I strongly disagree with what Rashad (McCants) has said. In no way did I know about or do anything close to what he says and I think the players whom I have coached over the years will agree with me. I have spent 63 years on this earth trying to do things the right way and the picture he portrays is not fair to the University or me."

A copy of McCants' university transcript, labeled "unofficial" and obtained by "Outside the Lines," shows that in his non-African-American Studies classes, McCants received six C's, one D and three F's. In his African-American Studies classes, 10 of his grades were A's, six B's, one a C, and one a D. The UNC registrar's office declined to send McCants an official, signed transcript because of a May 2005 hold on its release. According to the UNC Athletic Department, McCants had university property that had never been returned.

A second copy of his transcript obtained from a different source by "Outside the Lines" is identical to the first and is also not signed by the registrar but does not contain the label "unofficial."

McCants, who said it was common for basketball players to major in African-American Studies, said he assumed tutors writing papers for athletes was to be expected and he didn't question it while he attended UNC.

"I thought it was a part of the college experience, just like watching it on a movie from 'He Got Game' or 'Blue Chips,'" McCants said. "... when you get to college, you don't go to class, you don't do nothing, you just show up and play. That's exactly how it was, you know, and I think that was the tradition of college basketball, or college, period, any sport. You're not there to get an education, though they tell you that.

"You're there to make revenue for the college. You're there to put fans in the seats. You're there to bring prestige to the university by winning games."

McCants said his first year he did go to class and took several legitimate, core-curriculum courses. But overall, his transcript shows he ended up with more than 50 percent of his courses being AFAM classes.

McCants said he was headed toward ineligibility during the championship season because he had failed algebra and psychology, which accounted for half of his credits, in the fall of 2004. He had two A's in AFAM classes in addition to the F's. He said coach Roy Williams informed him of his academic troubles during a meeting ahead of the spring semester.

"There was a slight panic on my part ... [he] said, you know, we're going to be able to figure out how to make it happen, but you need to buckle down on your academics."

He said Williams told him "we're going to be able to change a class from, you know, your summer session class and swap it out with the class that you failed, just so the GPA could reflect that you are in good standing."

McCants ended up in four AFAM classes in the following semester, earning straight A's. He said he didn't know what Williams was getting at with the summer school class replacement reference, and he never talked with Williams about it again. The transcripts show he had received one A in an AFAM class in the summer of 2004.

"I remained eligible to finish out and win the championship, his first championship, and everything was peaches and cream," McCants said.

He said he is sure Williams and the athletic department as a whole knew "100 percent" about the paper-class system.

"I mean, you have to know about the education of your players and ... who's eligible, who's not and ... who goes to this class and missing that class. We had to run sprints for missing classes if we got caught, so you know, they were very aware of what was going on."

McCants left UNC after his third year and played four seasons in the NBA, before moving to play overseas. In the 90-minute "Outside the Lines" interview last month, McCants said he is planning to write a book about his basketball and collegiate experience.

McCants played as a freshman for coach Matt Doherty, who resigned under pressure and was succeeded by Williams in April 2003. McCants led the ACC in scoring his sophomore year and was the second-leading scorer his junior year as the Tar Heels won the national title. Still, he was often described as mercurial and enigmatic. In one local TV interview that ended up drawing national media coverage, McCants angered the basketball program's fans by equating UNC with being in jail: "You're not allowed to do certain things, you're not allowed to say certain things." He later said his statements were misinterpreted.

He acknowledged the difficult times at UNC when he spoke with "Outside the Lines," but spoke fondly about his time there overall. He discussed his suspect college education, describing himself as self-educated, and talked generally about how student athletes are treated at major sports programs. He spoke from memory without referring to his transcript. While he remembered most details correctly in terms of his transcript, he got other details incorrect, such as saying he had made the Dean's List twice instead of once.

"Outside the Lines" contacted or attempted to contact other players, and tutors and advisers from the Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes, but all either didn't respond or declined to comment.

Former North Carolina learning specialist Mary Willingham, who is often described as a whistleblower on the academic fraud scandal at the university.
Mary Willingham, a former UNC learning specialist who is often described as a whistleblower about the UNC academic fraud scandal, said she believes McCants' allegations.

"What he is saying absolutely lines up with what I have found: tutors writing papers for players, and advisers and tutors steering players to AFAM," she said. "I think the coaches knew about the paper-class system. Of course they did.

"The system will only change when our athletes have a voice and begin to step forward, and that's what Rashad is doing. It was the adults who failed the athletes."

Doherty said Friday that "I did not see any problems while I was at UNC as a player or a coach. I feel sorry for Rashad. He has had a lot of ups and downs during his career. If there are any issues, I trust that Bubba Cunningham and the university will get to the bottom of it."

Willingham said she and other colleagues openly discussed their concerns about the AFAM paper-class system in 2006, the same year The New York Times published an investigation about an independent studies scandal at Auburn. By 2007, Willingham said basketball players had started moving away from paper classes, and by 2009, when the basketball program hired a new academic adviser, the UNC paper-class system had all-but ended.

McCants said he's coming forward now because he is concerned about the future.

"It's about my kids, about your kids. It's about their kids. It's about knowing the education that I received and knowing that something needs to change," he said. "This has nothing to do with the Carolina fans or the Carolina program. It has everything to do with the system, and Carolina just so happened to be a part of the system and they participated in the system, so in retrospect, you have to look at it and say, 'Hey, you know what you did wrong.'

"Stand up. It's time for everybody to really just be accountable."

He said he is prepared for a backlash from UNC fans.

"If there are Carolina fans that don't like what's I'm saying and don't like what's happening right now, they need to look in the mirror, see that it's a bigger picture," he said. "... I'm putting my life on the line for the younger generation right now, and I know that nobody else wants to step up and speak out because everybody's afraid, fear, submission, especially the black athletes ... .

"College was a great experience, but looking back at it, now it's almost a tragedy because I spent a lot of my time in a class I didn't do anything in."

Well the problem is most of those players really don't care about going to college, but going pro, and making the millions, and that's a big problem. If a person goes to any University to be let's say a doctor they might get a scholarship, and other things, but they will never get the same treatment as those players that could bring a title to that school, and more importantly money to that college, so there's the look the other way policy.

Two years after his prolific shooting and trash-talking, jersey-popping, renegade attitude made him one of college basketball's most electrifying – and polarizing – players, Marshall Henderson now leads a much more humble professional existence.

In Baghdad, Iraq, of all places.

Henderson plays in the Iraqi Super League. The former Ole Miss star hears gunshots from time to time in the city. He doesn't leave his Baghdad hotel too often, where working electricity can be a daily challenge. And there are rarely female spectators in the stands at his games.

Henderson is about as far away from his NBA dream as possible, and yet he finds himself in a much better place personally while playing in Iraq.

"It's not as bad as people make it seem back home," Henderson told Yahoo Sports in a Skype audio interview last week. "We just chill in the hotel. We don't go anywhere. We could go places and it would be safe. We wouldn't be worried about getting captured or anything. It's definitely better than I would've expected."

Two seasons ago, before arriving in the Middle East, Henderson became one of the most colorful characters in college basketball at the University of Mississippi. He scored big, shot deep and talked brash, quickly turning him into one of college basketball's biggest stars – or villains, if you were an opposing fan. The skinny 6-foot-2, 172-pounder averaged 20.1 points per game while making more than a third of his 3-pointers as a junior during the 2012-13 season. With Henderson leading the way, Ole Miss won the 2013 SEC tournament. He then scored 19 points in the Rebels' upset of Wisconsin in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

"He was one of the most clutch players I ever played against," said former Tennessee forward Jarnell Stokes who is now with the Memphis Grizzlies. "He had a fan base everywhere he went."

Henderson, 24, made the most of his sudden rise to stardom. After a victory over Georgia, he famously ended his news conference with just 10 words, implying he had better plans for a Saturday night.

"As a kid you dream that something like that would happen," Henderson said. "But to actually be in it was definitely mind-blowing, especially at a place like Ole Miss, where, if you're an athlete, and you're something on a national level, there is love coming from all over the place. I was able to make contacts in the NBA and even rappers made comments where I was like, 'That's cool.' "

Henderson was told he could be a second-round pick when he initially entered the 2013 NBA draft. The 2013 SEC tournament MVP eventually decided to return to Ole Miss with hopes that a great senior season would improve his draft prospects.

Henderson, however, had a history of drug and alcohol problems dating back to high school, and those issues returned during the summer of 2013 when he was caught with possession of marijuana and cocaine. Ole Miss suspended him the first three games of the 2013-14 season. Henderson said the season went downhill from there.

"I got a lot of good feedback about being drafted in the second round," Henderson said. "Then I got in trouble that summer and then it seemed like that was the end of [the NBA interest]. There was really nothing after that. I have to live with that."

Henderson's averages dipped as a senior with 19 points per game on 39.1 percent shooting from the field. The negative publicity and catcalling bothered him, too. This time, there were no postseason tournament heroics from him.

Henderson wasn't invited to the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, which showcased the top seniors in the country, primarily because of his off-the-court issues, an NBA scout said. That NBA scouting combine showcased the top seniors in the country in Portsmouth, Va., and would've been a major platform for Henderson's draft hopes.

"It's been my dream to play in the NBA," Henderson said. "To be close and to think that a couple of decisions that I made harmed me from getting the necessary looks this past summer, that hurt."

Henderson's reputation worsened when he tweeted on May 11, 2014, that he was boycotting ESPN for showing St. Louis Rams draftee Michael Sam kissing his boyfriend during the NFL draft. Henderson called the kiss "nasty" and "SICKENING," and said it was too vulgar to be viewed by children.

Henderson would later tweet he was purposely offensive to get a reaction for a gay friend's psychology report. He continues to maintain his tweets were an experiment for his friend's report – a report he says he still has on his computer and includes background on Glenn Burke, the first openly gay Major League Baseball player who died of AIDS in 1995. Regardless, he wishes he had more worded the tweets differently.

"I've replayed so many situations so many times," he said. "I think I've created a false sense of what happened now."

Henderson's agent, Andre Buck, told him he should have zero expectations of being selected in the 2014 NBA draft. Buck was right. The only NBA team that worked out Henderson was the Houston Rockets, and that was for their Development League team. The Sacramento Kings also inquired about Henderson for a spot on their D-League team.

For a while, Henderson couldn't even get an offer overseas. He was prepared for a backlash, but not to that extent.

"There really was nothing out there," Henderson said. "This is just crazy.

"I got close with some people with the church and my family, and they told me I needed to get back to how I was raised and my values and morals with God. I did that, and things started to turn."

Henderson eventually landed a tryout in Italy that led to short contracts with Orsi Derthona Basket Tortona and OpenjobMetis Varese. After the Italian jobs dried up when teams became more interested in acquiring a true point guard and a veteran, Henderson's next stop was Qatar. He signed with Al Rayyan SC where most of his teammates had regular jobs during the day. He was a member of the 2014 Arab Club championship team, where he earned MVP honors – albeit without much fanfare.

"In Qatar, there might have been like 20 people in the stands, and that was like the families of the players," Henderson said.

In mid-February, Henderson signed to play for Nift Al-Janoub in Baghdad. He initially was nervous, but making a salary upward of $10,000 per month – according to Buck – with full room and board helped convince him to take it.

"The owners of these clubs are like buddy-buddy with each other," Henderson said. "It's kind of like a big competition on whose team wins. If you're an American and you're getting buckets, they will keep you happy if you're doing well for the team and you win."

The terrorism concerns in the Middle East aren't lost on Henderson. Players from the Al Shurtah Police team were in a hotel in Baghdad that was attacked. Luckily, none of the players were harmed.

"I was talking to the Americans [on Al Shurtah] and they had to switch hotels because a car bomb went off and blew up half of their hotel," Henderson said. "They showed me pictures. It was crazy that they were telling me the story so calm. That would have freaked me out a little bit. The picture the guy showed me, the room right across from his room was destroyed."

The Iraqi Super League season will soon be over, but Henderson could find another job on a different team in the Middle East. He said he's stayed away from drugs and alcohol since going overseas – "I've been really good about not testing those waters."

"I'm really proud of Marshall," Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said. "He's really done a 180 in his approach to life in a good way, so I'm extremely happy for him. I think it's certainly been an educational experience for him in year one with all his travels. I'm proud that he's playing and I'm proud of the strides that he has made personally."

Henderson plans to spend his offseason in his hometown of Dallas, where he just bought a boat, and at his old college town of Oxford, Miss. Buck is hopeful to get Henderson an invite from an NBA summer league team.

More than anything, though, Henderson hopes to stay on the right path once he returns to the United States.

"The real test is going to be going home with thousands of dollars," Henderson said. "What am I going to do with that? I will be excited to see what I do when I get home and whom I'm going to surround myself with.

"You can't really say much until you're in that situation. So we'll see."